sirsystemerror | Pokemon TPP Red: The Cutesy Girl Part IV

There were two things left to do from here before the Elite 4 rematches could be triggered. The first was to get the Diploma. The second was to go to bed

Here, you see the original TPP protagonist, RED.

Complete with a custom intro.

Dream Red is probably the hack’s toughest individual opponent, since his team doesn’t have default moves. Still, he’s just one trainer, and his AI isn’t good. That made him bait for the Slashie treatment. A combination of Earthquake and Rock Slide took out his entire team: Zapdos, Nidoking, Venomoth, Lapras, Omastar, and Pidgeot.

Indeed.

So this is it!

The Elite Four rematches were very similar to before, just with an extra Pokemon and all at Level 100. Jolteon still fried all of Lorelei’s Pokemon. I accidentally put Cleff out in front for Bruno, but since Fighting is an underrepresented type in terms of moves in the original games, it had no problem running through the team on its own. Slashie got Agatha this time, being more reliable than Mimester. Lance added an Onix, but it had no Ground moves, so Jolteon simply Double Kicked it apart. This time, Cleff did get the one-shot on the Dragonite.

Final save!

Now Gary is quite a bit different in the rematch. Instead, he uses an adapted team from Yellow, which I forgot about. This team is probably easier, due to not having the Parasect of Doom, and especially due to having an Exeggutor. As discussed, that thing has no moves.

The fight was probably a bit harder for my party, though. Though one Pokemon could’ve run through his team, I chose to vary it up for once. Polly took down Sandslash without incident, and I swapped in Cleff to Body Slam down his Alakazam. Exeggutor is free and got Blizzarded. Slashie came in to Earthquake Magneton (getting Screeched on the switch), Spike electrocuted Cloyster, and Polly Surfed out Flareon - though it did eat a critical Fire Blast on the switch.

But wait, THERE’S MORE!! Oak challenges you after this, saying he has watched you since the beginning, and now that you have become a Pokemon Master, you must prove you are worthy of the title.

Final final boss!

Oak uses a variant of his original beta team: Tauros, Exeggutor, Arcanine, the remaining starter fully evolved, Gyarados, and new: a Pikachu. Polly was at low HP, and ended up KOing itself with Submission from 1HP. Saura came in to finish off Tauros, and for spite reasons, used Toxic on Exeggutor and waited. Mimester apparently came in to take down Arcanine, and since Spike was at low HP and burned, was also the pick for Charizard.

Couldn’t quite get the job done with one Thunderbolt, but then it used Rage. Seeing the opportunity, Slashie came back in. It Swords Danced thrice, then Rock Slided it and Gyarados, then murdered Pikachu with Earthquake.

Pokemon Masters!!

Here’s our final gametime.

__________

Now let’s go over all of Mandel’s Pokemon.

Saura was a strong Pokemon early on, though it started to struggle a bit when the army of Poison Pokemon showed up. It can’t learn Earthquake in Gen 1. Still, Razor Leaf hurt anything that didn’t resist like hell, and that was frequently enough - with ToxicSeed and Double-Edge as backup attacks.

Polly’s base stats are a bit average, but they were balanced out by its Amnesia. I considered switching it over to a setup that takes advantage of it at times, but it turned out not to be necessary. Being my only Earthquaker for most of the game helped cement keeping it around, though Submission’s recoil was irritating. Wish I had a better option for wrecking physically frail Psychics than something weak to them, though!!

Cleff was also average, but its versality and the holes it filled more than made up for it. I ended up not using Minimize as much in the late game, with other options available making stalling using it simply not being necessary. However, it was equally unnecessary to change it from that. If I had, it probably would’ve been switched with Fire Blast. Its lower experience requirement also helped a bit

Team MVP award goes to Spike. If there was something in the way that I couldn’t beat, electric death more often than not did the job. Insane speed, insane special, and a great selection of moves - even though those last two couldn’t be exploited much except when electricity was unavailable, due to its lowish attack. Ground types weren’t a problem for it, just swap to Polly or Saura, or just Double Kick if it’s part-Rock and doesn’t have a Ground move.

Never thought I’d ever use a Mr. Mime in the playthrough, heh. But like I said, going through Gen 1 without a Psychic is silly, and it was either it or Mew - which wasn’t available in the main game. Mimester did its job okay, though: it Psychiced stuff, it Thunderbolted other stuff, and Seismic Toss helped for wearing down wilds. It certainly ended up with way less Stat EXP than anything above, but it got enough between Vitamins and what it did do.

Our last-minute entry, Slashie didn’t disappoint for the short time it was on our team. It did what it needed to do, and it did it effectively - in spite of a lack of Stat EXP. That was the reason for the Proteins after first getting it. Certainly, it could stand to improve if Mandel follows Cerise into Stadium!

All in all, this was a fun experience and excuse to play through the original, buggy, imbalanced Pokemon games again. It was fun coming up with a team theme, forcing me to use Pokemon I don’t normally use.

What’s next on the Pokemon agenda? Well, there’s a Crystal version of Red 151. Might check into that next, and after that? I do like monotype challenges and have done them in the past, so maybe some of those. But no Nuzlockes, because those suck. There's also a variant in-progress in Gen VI ORAS that I'll be porting over, and really should finish.

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